


The Team-Building Night

by Blairdiggory



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2016-04-04
Packaged: 2018-05-31 03:51:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6454312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blairdiggory/pseuds/Blairdiggory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Activity Club has a team building night. Things don't go as Mr. Spender originally planned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Team-Building Night

When Mr. Spender announces a team-building night for the Activity Club, Max is less than happy. They already put enough trust in each other to keep ghosts a secret and fight together, don’t they? Nevertheless, he shows up at Isabel’s grandfather’s dojo on Friday night with his sleeping bag, pillow, and his Mario Party DS game in case things get too friendly.   
Isabel opens the door when he knocks. She gives him a sympathetic smile to show him that she’s not too keen about this either and leads him into the main room. The rest of the club has set up camp on the training grounds, where Isabel has put her TV and gaming system. Her grandfather isn’t happy with the arrangements, but figures he might as well put some faith in his most enthusiastic pupil. Isaac is already complaining.   
“I don’t trust anyone here!” He says to Mr. Spender.   
“This is exactly why we need a club team-building night!” Mr. Spender says back. He waves Max and Isabel over, and Max sets up his sleeping bag next to Ed’s.   
“So, what are we doing tonight?” Max asks. “Are we telling ghost stories? Because that sounds a lot more lame now that I’m a spectral.”  
“It’s a lot more fun when you figure out which of those ghost stories are true,” Isabel smirks.   
“...On second thought, let’s not tell ghost stories.”  
“Ok, so, the agenda for tonight is to play team-building games that I’ve looked up on the Internet and crash at around midnight,” Mr. Spender says, clapping his hands together.   
“Can we watch bad horror movies instead?” Ed says. “I’ve got a couple of classics, plus Ghost Adventures…”  
“Dude, I love Ghost Adventures!” Isaac says. “It’s so fake.”  
“I know, right?”  
“Kids!” Things are already starting to get out of Mr. Spender’s control. “Let’s start with some of those games…”  
“I brought Mario Party!” Max exclaims.   
“Yes! Let’s play that!” Isabel says. “I call Yoshi!”  
“Hey, I want to be Yoshi!”   
“You can be Toad, Isaac.”  
“No way, Toad is lame.”  
“Max, is Mario Party a game based on team-work?” Mr. Spender asks.   
“It is if we play on teams.”  
“...Ok, fine. We’ll start with a round of Mario Party-” The kids cheer. “BUT-” The kids groan. “I choose the teams. Max, you’re with Ed. Isabel, you’re with Isaac.”  
“But I don’t like Isaac.”  
“No one likes Isaac, Isabel.”  
“HEY!”  
“Just start the game…”  
Mr. Spender regrets this decision about halfway through the game. The two teams are at each other’s throats and are pulling some of the dirtiest moves he’s ever seen in a Mario game.   
“OH, MY GOD, YOU DID NOT,” Max yells when Isaac uses a star pipe. “I WAS RIGHT NEXT TO THE STAR.”  
“Better luck next time,” Isaac smirks, high-fiving Isabel, who’s been beating everyone at most of the minigames so far. And then…  
“ED, HOW COULD YOU BETRAY ME?!” Isabel screams when she lands on a star-hex that he set. Max and Ed pull off a complicated handshake that they created five minutes into the game.   
The turn of events almost causes the end of the club and does cause Ed to cry at least once, but Mr. Spender has to agree that the team members who rarely talk to each other are now on better footing. He starts up the next game almost as soon as Mario Party ends. (Max and Ed won, Isabel and Isaac are furious, and Mr. Spender wants to avoid any actual fighting for as long as possible.)  
“Time to play Created Society! You’re starting a new society. First, what are you using as your currency-”  
“Rocks,” says Max.  
“Rocks are too common, Max, everyone will be rich, and the economy will collapse,” Isaac says.   
“Well, you’re just killing my dreams of a rock-based economy, now, aren’t you?”  
They end up creating a society based on the color of their spectral energy. Surprisingly, Isaac ends up on top and chooses to be an evil dictator. Ed is second and lives comfortably in his mansion, but secretly wonders whether life in this society is fair, and if he should do something about it (he decides to deal with it later). Max, who is in the lowest tier because his idea about making rocks the currency were stupid, teams up with Isabel to overthrow the government, but they end up dying as martyrs.   
“Guys, the point of this game was to work together and build a prosperous society,” says Mr. Spender, holding his face in his hand.   
“Capitalism is the enemy, Mr. Spender. And our society would be perfectly prosperous if it weren’t for some INSUBORDINATE HOOLIGANS!”  
Isabel and Max are lying on the floor pretending to be dead, so they pretend not to hear him, too. Ed wandered off to the kitchen some time ago, and comes back with marshmallows.   
“Hey, Mr. Spender, is it possible to roast marshmallows on spectral energy?”  
“Why on Earth would that be possible?”  
“Well, fire is made of energy, and spectral energy is energy, so I just figured…”  
“...Actually, I have no idea.”  
“Let’s find out!” Max says, coming back from the dead.   
The kids rework their society to be founded upon roasting marshmallows with the renewable resource of spectral energy, and all is in harmony.   
“I have a good team-building game!” Isabel says.   
“Ok, we can take suggestions. What’s the game called, Isabel?”  
“It’s called “Let’s Make Fun of Horror Movies and Point Out All of the Inaccuracies About Ghosts and Spirits”.”  
Mr. Spender only agrees because he understands the bonding power of making fun of the same thing as a unit.   
They start by watching Grave Encounters. They almost fall asleep because nothing happens for the first hour. Then, in the movie, the first lamp is knocked over.  
“Poltergeist,” Isaac says.   
One of the crew gets possessed by something.  
“Medium?” Max asks.   
“Medium,” Isabel confirms.   
A demon girl screams at the camera.  
“Spirit, not ghost,” Ed corrects the movie.   
They watch the Sixth Sense, which isn’t really a horror movie, but all at once, when the scene comes, the group goes, “I see dead people.” And bursts into hysterical laughter. They’ve all seen the movie except for Mr. Spender, who spends the next ten minutes in complete shock after the ending is revealed.  
The last thing they watch is Ghost Adventures. Zak jumps away from a bed that sits in the haunted house (it is actually haunted, the club can see the ghosts and spirits that inhabit it in the film while the ‘ghost hunters’ can’t). “Oh, my god, I just felt someone grab my ass!” He yells.  
The entire club is in fits because they can see (and hear) the pissed off ghost in the background, who is trying his hardest to become a poltergeist and whack Zak in the head for disturbing his daughter’s death site. The daughter in question is also there, deeply embarrassed, and is asking for her dad to stop, people will see this tape. The ghost keeps trying to hit Zak, and everyone in the club is hunched over, and making gasping, laughing noises like dying seals.   
After watching Zak challenge a ghost to attack him for the thousandth time, Max nods off at around 3 or 4 AM. As tempting as it is to prank him, the group is feeling to kind towards each other to pull anything. Isabel and Ed fall asleep next, and Isaac follows.   
They wake up at 7 to Isabel’s grandfather yelling at them to clear the floor for training. They stumble to clean up the games, the TV, and the marshmallow goop off the floor. Parents’ cars are here to pick up Isaac and Max, and Mr. Spender has to get home to grade tests. But as they part ways, they all agree, albeit silently, that bonding night was worthwhile.


End file.
